Interviews

Diablo III: Deep in Hell with Leonard Boyarsky

We talk with Diablo III's lead world designer about creating a rich world that many gamers will never see.

Leonard Boyarsky has a very tough job. He's lead world designer for Diablo III, the sequel to the quintessential action-RPG notorious for appealing to players who would never read quest text in an MMO and think story is that annoying few moments between fights and the next piece of "phat loot." Boyarsky is the guy who integrates the vast background of Diablo's world of Sanctuary with its diverse civilizations and rich and storied history into a game that prides itself on blazing action. Despite this and the punishing pace of working a show as chaotic as Blizzard's World Wide Invitational in Paris, France, though, Boyarsky seems like a pretty chipper guy. The reason is that he sees the challenge of integrating a deep background and a rich story into Diablo III as less a problem than an opportunity to try out a new twist on storytelling in games.

"I wasn't a hardcore Diablo fan before joining Blizzard," Boyarsky says as we begin talking. "I played them, of course, and I really liked them, but I usually like a lot more story depth in my games." According to Boyarsky, what drew him to the project was what he sees as the franchise's untapped potential for storytelling. "A lot of people are afraid that we're going to slow the gameplay down by enriching the story parts of the game. We're not doing that at all." The idea is to use some simple cinematic techniques such as dialogue rather than monologue to convey quest information and crafting richer backstories for the main characters that will be reflected in their artwork and the way they view the central action of the story.

One of the examples of this Boyarsky likes to use is the new Witch Doctor class. Unlike the previous games in which the player's avatar was more archetype than actual character, the classes in Diablo III are designed with complete backstories including who they were before the story began, why they're interested in the events of Diablo III, and who they are as people. The Witch Doctor is angry, someone who's been broken by a life that's dealt a few too many hard knocks and not enough joy. This is someone tired of being smacked in the head, so he uses his mystical powers to get into the heads of others (and if that doesn't work, a swarm of locusts will get under their skin). Boyarsky also cites the new city of Caldeum that became the seat of government when Karast fell in Diablo II. How an open-trade city changes when its freewheeling style is co-opted by colorless government bureaucrats is something that informs everything from character development to artwork to the nature of quests.

"Working all of this stuff out is a day-to-day challenge," Boyarsky says of the continual iterative process. As he describes it, it "...bounces back-and-forth between story and art and gameplay design." While Boyarsky is responsible for the creative integrity of the storyline, the details of the world often change based on what comes out of other areas. An artist will create a really cool piece of artwork that has to be fit into the history of the world somewhere and gameplay mechanics must be invented for. A new monster is built around a really interesting combat encounter and Boyarsky's the one who must rip pieces of the world away, juggle them around and put them back together in a way that makes sense within the rules of Diablo's fictional universe.

"I do recall one idea that I was really resistant to," Boyarsky recalled. "It was going to require me to re-write a third of everything I had created and looking back, I resisted because I just didn't want to do it." In the end, however, the idea was just too good and ended up going in the game, making it an argument Boyarsky says he's glad he lost. "One of the reasons this process works is because we're all gamers. It made the game better and that's the bottom line."

"I often use other games as examples of why story is important, even in an action game," Boyarsky said. "Sadly few games really love to tell stories." He cites games like Half-Life and Half-Life 2 as examples of games that integrate stories into dialogue and environment without sacrificing any of their fast-paced action. "The word around the office is that Diablo III is 'action with a capital A'," he said. "Lately, though, it seems like people are looking for more story in genres that aren't necessarily known for being story-driven." This is what pushes Boyarsky on. "People are ready for us to take Diablo III to new places rather than make Diablo all over again."